Yellowstone Trip - Day 3: Limon, Colorado

Just an overnighter at the grand KOA CG in Limon, Colorado.  It's mostly just a parking lot next to the highway for those passing through, but it fit our needs nicely.

Yellowstone Trip - Day 2: Wilson Lake

About a 5 hour drive to Minooka Park from Tulsa and we arrived during the day!  So, mostly uneventful.  Saw miles of fields of windmills used for electricity.  You know the 3-prop type.  Arrived at the park with is nestled in the hills of BFE!  But, this treasure of a campground surprised us.  There is NOTHING around for many miles, but Wilson Lake is pretty awesome.  During the night a wind/lighting storm came up and Gina was wondering if it was going to blow us into the water.  We are elevated above, but near the water you see.  It was pretty stormy blowing Voyager all over.  We ate at a small bar and grill which was run down, but the only place anywhere near here.  It was ok, but mostly all they had was burgers and beer.  We partook. 

Yellowstone Trip - Day 1: Salt Creek North Campground

First leg of trip was from home to this campground near Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Had two events on the road.  One cool.  One not so cool.  First the cool.  In Tulsa, we experienced some awesome fireworks in the middle of the city.  We noticed them in the distance, but we continued to drive right towards them eventually we were right next to them.  What a site with the explosions and bright sparkles going on all around us.  After, we continued on and a guy in a truck pulled along side us and motioned backwards.  I looked in the rear mirror and could see sparks.  Ah, crap.  Pulled over.  Well, the fifth wheel has scissor jack in the back to help stabilize the motion once parked.  For driving, they are in the up position.  What had happened was the 50 amp power cord had jostled around during the drive and pushed up against the switch that lowers the jacks.  When they caught pavement, they started throwing sparks.  Fortunately, only the right side bent slightly and I managed to raise them and position the cord out of the way.  With the day being so long, we arrived a nearly 11 pm.  Gina and swore not to drive that late at night again.  The ranger was nice enough to let us in after hours and guided us to our site.  Wow, what a day.

Gina Retires

Today, at 3pm, Gina officially retired after 33 years of civil service to the DoD!  What an accomplishmen for my beautiful wife.  Congrats my love.

It's hard to believe we are both done with Chapter 1 in our lives.  I'm excited beyond measure.  To realize the fruits of ones labor after such diligent planning and hard work is....well, it's hard to put into words.  I guess "freeing" best describes it.  Tomorrow, we head off to Yellowstone for about a month.  What puts icing on the cake is that my eldest son, Bryan, has gotten a job with Johnson and Johnson's research and development department.  I'm so proud.  He begins his first chapter as we begin our second chapter. 

Maumelle Park on July 4th Week

So, we need to get ready for the up and coming Yellowstone trip and it's been a while since we've taken Voyager out.  Two years ago we did a trip to Maumelle Park and watched the fireworks on the Arkansas River.  Since Gina's birthday is the 5th and she'd taken her last work time off, we booked the park again.

We were at the park 2-6 July and had a decent time.  The good:  family BBQ, some shopping around, some eating out, the new "Amazing Spiderman" movie, and a pretty darned good fireworks show across the river.  The not-so-good:  It was HOT, at or above 100 degrees the entire time.  This tends to keep us in the air which translates into RV indoors and trips into town for various things.  There was also a burn ban on so no fires.

It was good getting out of the house and I did get to check all of Voyager's systems for Yellowstone.  We leave on the 27th!